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Monday, September 9, 2013

Author: Joyce DeBacco

I would like to introduce Women's Fiction
author, Joyce DeBacco.

Welcome, Joyce. I'm so excited for you
to share information about your latest book.

Please tell us a
little about yourself.

After reading women's fiction for
many years, I finally decided to take the plunge and write my own Serendipity House, was
named best indie romance for 2011 by Lynn of the now defunct Red Adept Reviews.
As the mother of four grown daughters, I'm familiar with the problems women
face finding love, raising children, and stepping back when necessary. That's
why family dynamics play a large part in all my books. Sibling rivalry, drug
abuse among teens, and problems with spouses figure prominently in all my
stories. Of course, there's always a touching love story threaded through the
pages as well. Who doesn't love a good love story? I can be found most days
secluded in my office creating new worlds and people to populate them. When I'm
not taxing my brain with plot, structure, and grammar, I like to sew,
particularly quilts. When I really want to rest my brain cells, I sprawl out in
front of the TV and usually fall asleep.

You sound like a super
woman. For new readers—what can they
expect when they read your book(s)?Anyone who picks up one of my books can expect a touching love story
with tasteful love scenes that make you sigh. They can also expect it to
revolve around a family with the same problems most families deal with. It can
be sibling rivalry, willful teenagers, or drug abuse.

Your stories sound very relateable. How do you balance writing with the rest of
your life?

You mean I’m actually supposed to have a life?

Very well said. Can you describe
your writing space for us?

I have an office in my home
that’s more of a catchall for anything I don’t want cluttering up the rest of
my home. I have a computer desk and regular desk on one side and a sewing
machine and tall chest of drawers on the other side. When I want a change, I
just switch sides and catch up on my sewing. Needless to say, between the
computer screen and sewing machine, my eyes are screaming for a rest midway
through the day.

I can imagine. What genre(s) do you write? Why do you write
the stories that you write?

I write women’s fiction
because those are the kind of stories I read while growing up. I may be dating
myself, but as a pre-teen, my first real “grownup” book was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. After that
came Gone With the Wind, The Thorn Birds,
and many of LaVyrle Spencer’s books. Later on, I read every one of John Jakes’
books. So my reading pleasures are quite eclectic.

Do your characters come to you
first, or the plot, or the world of the story?

Which comes first? Hmm, I’d have to say each starts out in a
different way. There’s no one constant here. Sometimes it’s the plot and other
times it’s the entire story. Then I need to populate it with the right
characters. Once I have the characters, the plot, and their world, the rest
seems to flow easily.

What sets your books apart from other authors?
What sets my books apart are the characters and how they deal with situations.
As several reviewers have mentioned, my characters seem so real, they’re like
people you might know. Thus, they react the way real people would. There are no
cookie-cutter themes in my stories. All are unique.

I like the sound of that. How
do you go about developing your characters?

My characters develop the same way people get to know each other.
At first it’s slow going. Then, as we embark on our journey together, I get to
know them better and what they would say and how they would react to the
situations I place them in.

Can
you share a little of your current work?
Right now I’m reworking a story I started many, many years ago. Because I take
my time writing and won’t release until I’m 99% sure it’s the best it can be, I
can’t say when I’ll be finished with it. It was the first story I ever
attempted to write and, of course, it’s full of all the faults you’d expect of
first-time writers. This basically means I had to toss most of it and start over,
all 600 typewritten pages!

Joyce, thank you so much for visiting with us today and giving us a
glimpse into your life. I love how
personal your books are and the attention you give every story. I see why your books receive the claim they do.